Whining

I'm having a bad day. Kate has decided that sleeping isn't necessary. She's my first baby to not need much sleep. I've heard friends talk about their baby not needing much sleep, and I thought they just hadn't tried hard enough. Kate must be my punishment.

She is sleeping 7 pm - 6 am each night. That's a total of only 11 hours at night! (My other kids did a minimum of 12 hours at night.) It boggles my mind that she can get by on that little. Unfortunately, those 11 hours are far from being uninterrupted. Every night for that last couple months, she's been up at least once (usually between 1-3 am), and last night she was up at both midnight and 4 am, and then she was chipper and ready to roll at 6 am.

As far as her napping, I usually get about 20 minutes out of her sometime in the morning, and then about 1-2 hours in the afternoon. And that's it. She just doesn't sleep. Her room is dark and the house is as quiet as I can get it. She's pretty smiley and happy too, but I need a break sometimes! (My other kids would nap 2-3 times per day for about 2 hours each at this age.)

For a comparison, Ethan (who is 2 years older) sleeps 7pm-6:30am non-stop every night, and then naps every afternoon for at least 3-4 hours. That is many, many more hours than my much younger baby.

I feel like I'm going to die. I took two Tylenol this morning for the headache, ate a cold slice of pizza for breakfast, and drank a Sprite for lunch. My new calling is taking over my life. I am the secretary in the Young Women's (girls ages 12-18 years). I didn't think it'd be that hard. I was wrong. Our president has a full-time job, and both of the counselors do lots of volunteering. Everyone travels A LOT. I haven't been home for one bedtime since last Tuesday (YWs activities every night). Ryan is giving Kate baby food at bedtime instead of milk (she doesn't take a bottle or sippy, and I'm not here to nurse here).

This morning I was in tears. I exploded on Ryan (who took out the trash, emptied and loaded the dishwasher, got me Tylenol, and started a load of laundry all before taking Collin and his space project to school this morning) ranting about wanting my blessings for taking this calling NOW. Really, I just want my baby to sleep. She used to sleep; what's her deal?! Shouldn't I get what I want?

Anyway, I know it isn't rational. I haven't slept decently in months (I do YWs stuff during Ethan's nap time most days, and as I mentioned Kate's nap is sketchy at best). Oh, and it doesn't help that my woman hormones have started up again, and that means my insomnia is back a few nights every month with my cycle. BLAH!!!!

Ok, I needed a good whine today. I'm done now.

If You Give a Mom Laced Shoes...

If You Give a Mom shoes with laces,

she'll have to sit down to tie them.

If she sits down to tie them,
she'll probably sit on a plop of oatmeal.

If she sits on a plop of oatmeal,
she might have to go upstairs and change her pants.

If she goes upstairs to change her pants,
she'll probably see herself in the mirror.

If she sees herself in the mirror,
she might need to brush her hair, fix her ponytail and put on a bit of mascara.

If she sees the overflowing laundry basket she added her oatmeal-ed pants to,
she'll probably have to collect all the laundry from all the bedrooms.

If she tries to collect all the laundry,
she'll have to venture into The Boy Room.

If she goes into The Boy Room,
she'll probably start turning all the wadded pajamas on the floor right-side-out, straighten the beds, lay out jammies for the coming evening, check the "clothing squares" to make sure everyone has things to wear for the week, and straighten the pictures above the crib.

When she's comes downstairs, she'll realize she was supposed to bring down the laundry she was collecting. She'll go back up to get it all.

She'll put the laundry in the washer, and sit down to tie her shoes.

And chances are, if she sits down to tie her shoes, she'll sit on a plop of oatmeal.

THE END

 The moral of the story: Buy Mom slip-ons - $13 at Walmart and worth every penny :-)